Monday, October 29, 2012

Mid 1990's shots from the original location (building since torn down)

Leo's Deli opened in 1942 at 1503 Elizabeth Ave. It would move one block over in 2002 to 1421 Elizabeth Ave and would eventually close in August 2010. At the time of it's closing, it held the distinction of being Charlotte's oldest deli. It was operated from 1976 until its close by the Maheras family.

The Avondale Pharmacy was in Dilworth on Park Rd. It opened in 1947 (when the road was called Avondale Ave) and closed on January 21, 1986. Like most drugstores of the time, it's most popular attribute was it's lunch counter. It's eight-stool counter was always packed and featured everything from ice cream cones to burgers. Original owner Gordon Eldridge sold it to Bob Lewis in 1981 who ran it until it's closing in 1986. It transitioned into a Kerr Drugs and currently houses the popular eatery Fran's Filling Station.

The drugstore lunch counter represented a bygone time in Charlotte restaurant history. The below article from 1987 paints a good picture of the culture and loyalty of the lunch counter:

"Picture a marble-topped counter - or at least a Formica one that looks like marble - lined with stools.

A straw dispenser, a milk shake machine, a glass-domed container full of

lemon meringue pie.

And maybe, if you`re lucky, a little grill for fixing hot dogs and BLTs.

The drugstore lunch counter was a beloved fixture on the American landscape during my growing-up years. You could find one tucked in a corner of every

pharmacy, every dime store, every town.

Now the counter is vanishing.

Being squeezed out by expanded cosmetic displays, automotive equipment

shelves, racks of best-sellers and all the other merchandise the discount drug chains offer.

Maybe luncheonettes aren`t as profitable.

But where, I wonder, do weary shoppers stop these days for a cup of coffee? How do kids survive without a freshly mixed, after-school cherry Coke?

And what do older folks do without a neighborhood hangout, a place they can count on for a simple lunch and a soul-nourishing visit?

The old-style luncheonette isn`t completely gone from the scene, thank

goodness.

Here and there around Charlotte, a few survive: at several Woolworth`s, a

couple of aging Eckerd`s, and Avondale Pharmacy on Park Road, among others.

I often take my kids to Avondale`s eight-stool counter for ice cream cones. It`s a perfect spot for children - who love twirling on the stools,

dripping chocolate ice cream on the counter, and sticking straws out of their mouths to look like walruses.

Most of the regulars are older folks from the Dilworth and Sedgefield

neighborhoods. Some, I`m told, nurse a cup of coffee there for hours every

So is the Eckerd`s on Providence Road, in a little shopping center behind

the A&P and the Town House.

And last week, when word leaked out that Eckerd officials planned to close

the Myers Park store`s counter, the regulars went wild.

``I don`t usually get this mad,`` said Joyce Cranfill of Queens Road West.

``But that little counter is a community institution for people from 8 to

80.

``How can they let the profit motive supersede their community spirit? I`m

going to my garden club right now, and see if I can get a protest going.``

Margaret Harbison of Malvern Road was one jump ahead of her.

The minute she heard the news, Harbison drew up a petition asking Eckerd to keep the counter open. Within a few days, she`d collected more than 500 names. ``That kind of place is part of what makes a community,`` Harbison said.

``All sorts of people wanted to sign the petition - older people, families,

even kids.

``One little boy signed, and asked if he could put his dog`s name, too.

`` His name is Oscar Mayer,` the little boy told me. And he eats all the

leftovers.` ``

Eckerd officials - who took a lot of flak when they closed the counter at

Park Road Shopping Center a few months ago - sat up and took notice of the

Myers Park uprising.

``That closing has been postponed,`` Rose Houser of the district office

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Standing Room Only Pub & Deli opened in March 1980 in the Westpark Mall on Tyvola Rd. Besides great food, it holds three important distinctions in Charlotte restaurant history--- it was the first place in town to serve wings, it's beer selection rivaled other eateries in town due to both quality and quantity of selection (only The Hotel Charlotte came close), and it gets credit for being one of Charlotte's earliest sports bar.Owner Kirk Weaver would operate SRO for the balance of the decade before opening the Township Grille in Matthews in 1988 and then, most recently, Lebowski's Neighborhood Grill on East Blvd.